CaixaBank Says 3,000 Jobs May Be Affected by Cost-Cutting Plan

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- CaixaBank SA, Spain’s third-biggest
bank, said some 3,000 employees would be affected by plans to
cut costs after it acquired lenders including Banca Civica SA.

Jobs need to be cut after the bank absorbed Banca Civica
last year and agreed to take over nationalized lender Banco de
Valencia SA, Barcelona-based Caixabank said in a statement
today. Talks with unions may last until the end of April, it
said.

“The aim is to analyze all the possible formulas and agree
on the best measures to adjust the workforce to the needs of the
business,” CaixaBank said in the statement. “The application
of these restructuring measures will affect some 3,000 staff.”

CaixaBank’s integration of Banca Civica in 2012 boosted its
workforce to 32,625 from 26,993 a year earlier as lenders
including Banco Santander SA shutter branches to weather Spain’s
economic slump. CaixaBank has 6,342 branches serving 13 million
customers, or one branch for every 2,050 clients. That compares
with more than 3,000 clients for each of the branches run by
Santander, the country’s biggest lender.